22 Feb, 2010 21:44 CET
? Affitech divests remaining GV1001 vaccine rights;? Divestment continues Affitech's transformation to focus its breakthrough drugdiscovery technology on therapeutic antibodies to G-Protein Coupled Receptors(GPCR). Copenhagen and Oslo, February 22nd, 2010 Affitech A/S, (Nasdaq OMX: AFFI), the antibody medicines company, todayannounced it has finalised the terms of an agreement with KAEL-GemVax Co Ltd ofKorea under which KAEL-GemVax acquires the remaining rights to the GV1001vaccine. The agreement allows Affitech to focus exclusively on itstransformation into an internationally competitive antibody therapeuticscompany rather than its previous cancer vaccine business. GV1001 and Restructuring of Previous Agreement? GV1001 is a potential therapeutic cancer vaccine based on a peptide derivedfrom an intracellular nuclear protein called telomerase known to beover-expressed in many cancers. This potential product was acquired byAffitech's predecessor, Pharmexa A/S, in 2005 through the acquisition of GemVaxAS and was previously in a Pharmexa company sponsored Phase III clinical trialin pancreatic cancer (the Primovax study). ? Under a share purchase agreement in October 30th 2008, KAEL acquired GemVaxand the further development and commercialisation rights to GV1001 and tookover support of the remaining Phase III trial (the Telovac study) currentlybeing conducted by an academic consortium with pancreatic cancer patients inthe UK in a study design which varies somewhat from the failed Primovax trial. ? The share purchase agreement provided for milestone payments and royaltiesbased on KAEL-GemVax securing eventual marketing authorisation for the vaccineproduct. As previously reported, subject to the successful outcome of theongoing cancer clinical trial and attainment of marketing approvals, suchmilestone payments may be up to USD 8 million with royalties on commercialsales of 10%. The agreement also provided for further development of GV1001 tobe funded entirely by KAEL-GemVax and/or other parties. ? The current agreement provides for KAEL-GemVax to pay Affitech a payment ofUSD 1 million together with releasing Affitech from liabilities associated withthe clinical trial of USD 321 thousand. Commenting on the deal, Dr Robert Burns, Affitech's CEO, said: “Thus far there have been no examples of commercial success in the developmentof therapeutic cancer vaccines - even though virtually everyone in the fieldwould loudly applaud any such progress. While we wish our partners KAEL-GemVaxboth clinical and eventual commercial success with GV1001, we believe the pathto such success remains long and arduous. Our focus as a company is now onantibody therapeutic drugs - a therapeutic approach that has proven repeatedlyto be capable of delivering breakthroughs in clinical medicine and with it,international commercial success “. “We believe it appropriate to focus Affitech's current efforts on building ourantibody therapeutics business. The effect of this deal is to release fundingfrom the last remaining non-core vaccine collaboration and put this money towork on our novel anti-chemokine receptor therapeutic antibody programmes.These are already starting to produce exciting research results and suchantibodies are likely to be the foundation of Affitech's eventual commercialsuccess” Strategic Focus on GPCR TargetsThe Affitech business strategy is now focused on the discovery and developmentof novel therapeutic antibodies targeting GPCR molecules (G protein coupledreceptors). Many of the most clinically and commercially significant drugs inthe pharmaceutical marketplace target GPCRs. Within the broad family of GPCRtargets, Affitech has selected initially the chemokine receptor sub-groupagainst which to develop therapeutic antibodies and the company currently hasmultiple pre-clinical programmes in this novel anti-chemokine receptor arena. For more information please contact: Affitech: Robert F Burns, PhDCEOTel # +45 50 99 76 42About Affitech Affitech AS is a publically traded (Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen exchange) humantherapeutic antibody company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark with R&Dfacilities in Oslo, Norway. The company utilizes a range of proprietaryantibody technologies for the discovery of fully human antibodies forapplication in oncology, inflammation and other disease areas. CBAS™ (CellBased Antibody Selection) is Affitech's premier discovery engine for theisolation of lead antibodies to cell surface molecules in situ. Several of theCompany's proprietary product candidates were generated by CBAS™. Furtherinformation is available at www.affitech.com. Disclaimer This news release contains forward-looking statements and forecasts based onuncertainty, since they relate to events and depend on circumstances that willoccur in the future and which, by their nature, will have an impact on resultsof the financial condition and operations of Affitech A/S. There are manyfactors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materiallyfrom those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements andforecasts. These factors include, among other things, risks associated withtechnological development, the risk that research & development will not yieldnew products that achieve commercial success, the impact of competition, theability to transact viable and profitable commercial deals, the risk ofnon-approval of patents not yet granted, and difficulties of obtaining relevantgovernmental approvals for new products. No expressed or implied representations or warranties are given concerningAffitech A/S or the accuracy or completeness of the information providedherein, and no claims shall be made by the recipient of this news release byvirtue of the information contained herein.